Victorian Forts Portsmouth 19b
Stokes Bay Lines Battery No.2
Commenced 1857 Armament
Completed 1861
Cost £ 75,120 for the Lines 1872 10 x 8-inch S.B. 2 x 68pr S.B.
1886 12 x 7-inch R.B.L.
Map Reference SZ 58697 98929 1890 9 x 7-inch R.B.L.
Position Gosport Stokes Bay 2 x 7-inch RML on Moncrieff carriages
1901 2 x Maxim Machine Guns
Type Coast Defence Flanking Battery 2 x 6-inch Mk VII B.L.
on CP II Mountings
Ditch wet 1907 Disarmed
Guns 15
Barrack Accom. 2 Married Soldiers
Present use Caravan/ Chalet park & east
battery storage/museum
History Coast Defence Caponiers None
Counterscarp None
Disposal Sold to Gosport Council 1932
Condition Good galleries
Access Exterior only. East casemates open Haxo casemates None
during Summer months.
Sources Stokes Bay Defences - D.Moore
Moncrieff Pits 2
History and Description
No.2 Battery was completely encircled by its moat. Access was over a fixed bridge. It was first armed with 8-inch S.B.
guns firing along the moat towards No.3 Battery and in the west facing casemates (Right Face) which fired in the rear of
the Browndown Batteries. Two 68pr S.B. guns were to be mounted on its sea facing emplacements (South Face) which
were approached by a long gun ramp. By 1886 the smooth bore guns had been replaced with twelve 7-inch 82cwt R.B.L.
guns whilst the main sea facing armament of two 64pr R.M.L. guns was to be replaced with two 7-inch 7-ton RMLs on
6ft parapet mountings. In 1890 the decision was made to temporarily mount the 7-inch R.M.L.s on dwarf traversing
platforms as no 6ft parapet mounting had been developed for this gun. The battery had magazine accommodation in the
form of two shell stores and six cartridge stores. In 1890 cartridge stores 1 and 2 held 462 cartridges each whilst numbers
5 and 6 held 192 cartridges each. Stores 3 and 4 had been removed. Shell store 1 held 390 rounds and shell store 2 held
500 rounds.
In 1890 it was decided to remove the No.10 gun, the centre gun of three on the left flank (the east facing casemates), and
substitute the two remaining guns (nos 9 & 11) with Maxim machine guns on embrasure (cone) mountings to fire along
the ditch. In 1891 the two sea facing emplacements were rebuilt to take two 7-inch 7-ton R.M.L. guns on Moncrieff
disappearing carriages. A Sling Wagon Shed and Artillery General Store were build on the parade. One of the right face
casemates, the northern one, was appropriated as a Married Quarter for two soldiers and their families. The other
casemates were retained briefly as gun positions for the 7-inch 82cwt R.B.L. guns and as expense magazines, fuze and
tube store and lamp room. No.2 Battery is a grade II listed building and it is the best preserved of the Stokes Bay
Batteries. Gosport Borough Council purchased the Battery in 1932 from the Home Office for £1,500. In 1933 the Council
approved the use of the site as a caravan park. 1939 the Council moved their records from the town hall to the Battery for
safe storage. During World War Two the battery was requisitioned for military use and after the war it was retained. In
1947 it was being used by the Special Armament Development Establishment (S.A.D.E.) based in Fort Gomer. In 2010
Gosport Borough Council were actively seeking a use for the structure, and the Historical Diving Society expressed an
interest in acquiring it for a small museum to display their diving apparatus. In 2011 It opened as a museum.
www.victorianforts.co.uk